The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic and 'Pioneers' on the Migration Decisions of Prospective Filipino Migrant Nurses Working in Pampanga

• Main Authors: Tubu, Ciena Shaira Q., Delicano, Anna Cochise J., Timbang, Ruth Ann Ysabel C.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2022
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdb_intlstud/2; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=etdb_intlstud
• Institution: De La Salle University

The migration of Filipino nurses has been a widespread phenomenon due to the perceived better living and working conditions abroad. As a result, healthcare in the country has been adversely affected, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. This abrupt shift led to an increase in positive attitudes towards migration. With Pampanga as the chosen province, the researchers aim to delve into the migration decisions of Filipino nurses amid the COVID-19 pandemic by utilizing the migration systems theory. The migration systems theory interprets migration patterns as an outcome of ‘feedback mechanisms’ transmitted to potential migrants by their ‘pioneers.’ This results in the development of a system in which prospective migrants are influenced to seek opportunities elsewhere. The research focuses on the experiences and challenges of Filipino nurses working in Pampanga; however, the study also recognizes personal factors such as gender and civil status in analyzing their migration attitudes. Moreover, the researchers utilized a qualitative research approach following a descriptive research framework that allowed the researchers to explore the significance of the COVID-19 pandemic in the migration attitudes of nurses in Pampanga. Through the snowball sampling method, the researchers conducted in-depth online semi-structured interviews among 12 Filipino nurses to obtain data and examine feedback-driven factors that shape their migration decisions. The researchers conducted a thematic analysis to analyze the gathered data. This study finds that there are migration systems formed between the prospective migrants and their pioneers from developed countries, driven by the unfavorable working conditions in the country and the positive feedback coming from the pioneers. This study also shows that pioneers have a crucial role in either encouraging or disrupting migration flows of Filipino nurses from Pampanga. The findings of this study will cater to the study of migration and healthcare systems from a more local level. Specifically, it contributes to understanding the role of feedback mechanisms and migration pioneers in the context of a pandemic, which either urges or discourages the target sample to migrate, and the working conditions of healthcare workers. With this, the study contributes to a firm understanding of how existing migration and healthcare policies could be reexamined and further developed by the Philippine government to guarantee fair migration and healthcare policies. Thus, the study suggests that the Philippine government rethink its healthcare approach and provide a more sustainable and equitable healthcare system that compensates Filipino nurses well to manage nurse shortage in the country due to migration—a primary solution for the perils of working in a country with inefficient healthcare systems.